What's not to like about individual-size ten inchers or family-size
20-inch brutes topped with prosciutto or prosciutto cotto? Or with
Italian sausage from Polidori, handcrafted mozzarella, ricotta salata,
chorizo, white anchovies, arugula or eggplant caponata? And what's not
to like about an antipasto board that swaggers sweet and sour figs,
Gorgonzola-stuffed queen olives, cherry peppers stuffed with provolone
and prosciutto, or balsamic cippolini onions?
And, seriously,
what's not to love about 30 beers on tap, another 30 in the can or
bottle, an all-Italian wine list, Italian-inspired cocktails with names
like "Bert" (ha, ha -- get it?), two daily dollar happy hours, a game
room with Skee-Ball and pool tables, a 22-foot-long community table and
a fireside lounge all pimped out in leather and Victorian antiques?
"It's a real mixology of old and new," explains Wagner, who points out
that the bar and most of the furnishings are salvageable architecture
from all sorts of different places, including the now-closed Armory in
Greeley and Penelope's in Crested Butte. "Most of what we have is from
old bars," he tells me.
A bar that we can't wait to break in.